In every individual’s life there are some priceless cherished moments, which get indelibly imprinted in the memory. Undoubtedly, this is one such momentous occasion for me and it would be befitting to begin this "Presidential Address" by profusely thanking the electorate for bestowing this honor upon me.

Since its inception in 1963, the Indian Academy of Pediatrics has now become a potent force, striving for the improvement of health and well being of all children. With a current membership nearing 14,000, the organization operates through a massive infrastructure of three Central Offices, 26 State Branches and 209 Regional, District and City Branches. There are 16 Sub-Specialty Chapters and 10 Working Groups besides various issue-based Sub-Committees. The two official journals, internationally renowned Indian Pediatrics and Indian Journal of Practical Pediatrics, serve as effective mediums for education by regular dissemination of quality scientific information while the Academy Today functions as the Official News Bulletin of the Association’s activities. All these aforementioned components of the Academy are performing laudable service and one may pause to wonder what more can be done? However, only "change is constant" and we have to perpetually fine-tune our priorities and resources for the optimal realization of our "Mission Statement". In this context, I am briefly outlining our current action plan.

There is considerable merit in the age-old maxim that "money is the root of all evils". However, simultaneously in today’s world it would be prudent to realize that money is indispensable for performing "good deeds". The economic health of the Academy needs an urgent booster in this global recession scenario. We need to ensure fiscal discipline and tap all "ethical" resources for this purpose. These strategies are already beginning to yield some dividends.

A prime objective of the Academy is to provide "unbiased" scientific support for our everyday practice: (i) As a beginning, in this "conference with a difference", serious efforts have been made to separate "sponsored sessions" and inform about any commercial links to the presentation (statement of competing interests); (ii) The need for formulating evidence-based guidelines for common clinical conditions has been voiced by several colleagues. This has an added advantage of setting the standards from the medico-legal perspective. In the past, several Subspecialty Chapters and Committees have brought out useful guidelines. However, we still have a large distance to cover and due efforts are being directed for this purpose; (iii) Considerable progress has occurred in enlarging and revising the popular Indian Pediatrics publication on "Pediatric and Neonatal Emergencies", which should be available within a few months; (iv) We should rapidly move towards resolving controversies in a scientifically rational rather than an emotional manner. The commissioning of a systematic review for the recent debate regarding the safety of an antipyretic illustrates this determination.

The Academy continues to be deeply concerned about the high and stagnant infant and neonatal mortality rates, the sub-optimal breastfeeding and infant feeding practices, erosion of routine immunization services, resurgence of poliomyelitis, HIV infection and the neglected adolescent period. We reaffirm our active support to our earlier commitments in this direction.

The intellectual resources of the Academy can be productively utilized for formulating the "National Child Health Policy". Some of us are already performing this role in their individual capacities. However, formalizing this partner-ship between the IAP and the Government would instill a much-needed feeling of ownership amongst us. Our efforts should be directed towards the genuine needs of the nation rather than blind implementation of donor driven agenda. In this context, the Assam tragedy is a grim reminder of the fact that the Academy had warned about the possibility of disastrous consequences of mixing mega-dose Vitamin A supplementation with pulse polio program. I wish to focus attention on the following two need based public health issues, in which the Academy can play an important role.

The country is currently witnessing an epidemic of chronic diseases in urban adults including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease, hyperlipidemia and Syndrome X. The health and economic consequences of this epidemic can spell disaster for the nation. You may be intrigued as to how does this concern us pediatricians? We cannot now ignore the evidence that these adult diseases are either programmed in the womb at the delicate fetal stage or established right from infancy or early childhood. Longitudinal data indicates that subjects developing hypertension or diabetes as adults are those who have gradually but tenaciously started getting fatter and fatter from early in life. We pediatricians cannot therefore afford to be mere mute spectators to this menace.

What then can we do? Firstly, convince our entire family to extract at least half an hour every day to adopt a healthy life style and act as "role models" for the society. Unless you are healthy, how can you take good care of your patients? Choose the exercise option that suits you best - walking, jogging, gymnasium or the traditional art of Yoga and meditation. Secondly, utilize in your everyday practice the "Guidelines on Childhood Prevention of Adult Diseases", which will be formulated on a priority basis. Finally, we are making concerted efforts to act as a catalyst for initiating a "Healthy Life Style Program" from childhood. However, the seemingly invisible and remote benefits have only elicited a lukewarm response till date. I urge the Honorable Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare to take a global lead by launching this need based program.

Our efforts also need to focus on the rapidly expanding and underprivileged urban poor who lack an organized health care delivery system in contrast to the rural population. They lack basic civic amenities including safe water supply and proper sewage disposal. It is therefore understandable that their child health indices are two to three times worse off than their urban counterparts. The Academy would be delighted to provide technical input for the Governmental initiatives in this direction. Indian Pediatrics, in collaboration with the Environmental Health Project will soon bring out a series of well-researched papers to provide programmatic direction for this purpose.

With the shrinking of the globe, the need for international collaborative efforts is more evident. There has been some progress on this possibility with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, U.K. The collaborative Indo-UK Symposium on February 1st and 2nd, 2003 in New Delhi could be the forerunner for similar regular sharing of experience and expertise. We also hope to forge alliances for training and in other spheres.

While concluding, I would like to emphasize that you are the pivot around which the Indian Academy of Pediatrics revolves. Kindly provide the necessary guidance and support to your Academy to enable it to scale greater heights.

Thank you for a patient hearing.